1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telecommunication networks. Specifically, the present invention relates to policy management on telecommunication networks.
2. Background of the Invention
The evolution towards UMTS, HSPA, SIP/IP services and more powerful end-user devices is resulting in new application and service uses across mobile networks. VoIP, Slingbox, online gaming, Google Maps, etc. are examples of these services. This trend is also resulting in service providers becoming mere “bit pipes”, or bandwidth providers. Thus there is a need for service providers to establish IT and business mechanisms to provide a well-managed quality-controlled secure experience. This will retain and enhance the customer base and facilitate convenient business deals with other service and content providers.
One such mechanism is Policy management. Policy management enables a service provider to proactively manage data service usage across the network. Policy management can be applied to manage subscriber access and usage, network resources, and application/media resources and services.
As mobile data networks converge with other packet-based data networks, such as cable internet, service providers need to consider the capabilities of policy management for integrated and converged services across their networks.
The emphasis and goals for existing policy management frameworks results in a specific approach to policy framework architectures, such as the radio resource constraint in the mobile network. For instance, in a mobile wireless network, e.g. UMTS, the goal of policy control is more focused on resource control and management. This leads to a centralized policy management framework relative to mobile network design standards. The policy enabled control mechanism is in the core of the network. See FIG. 3A.
The disadvantage of this architecture is that there is added complexity and delays between decisions and enforcement. An alternative policy management is more suited to IP and other decentralized networks. A goal in this type of network is to police incoming network traffic close to the edge of the network or intranet. The result is a more distributed policy management architecture (hereinafter “architecture”), see FIG. 3B.
This divergence of goals results in the divergence of standard work in the policy management area. The 3GPP R7 PCC takes a centralized approach to the design of the policy management architecture, thus placing policy control at the core of the network. In the TISPAN and DSL forums however, the policy decision and enforcement is more distributed and more control is placed at the edge of the network.
Support of services on converged networks supporting heterogeneous access technologies is an ongoing topic of discussion in various industry forums with no clear solutions at this time. No one forum so far has taken the responsibility for end to end systems encompassing different architectures that support different access technologies. Whereas interconnect gateways exist to connect multiple different networks, at present, very little has been done to converge these standards or to implement a standardized policy management framework that can transcend the network type and is ideal for an IMS environment.